seven steps to death
by Bittersweet Dances
Summary: because you aren't dead until there's a bullet in your head. au - zombie apocalypse, sasusaku
1. one

"This way, this way!"

Feet pounding. Growling. Racing breaths. Rapid heartbeats.

"Get in!"

Door slams, bodies hit the wood.

"Find something to block it!"

"Here! Naruto, help me!"

Scraping on the floor. Heavy wooden desk presses into the door.

"Are you bit!? ARE YOU BIT!?"

* * *

**seven steps to death**

* * *

Sasuke collapses to the floor, cursing. "You cut me with your damn knife, dumbass!" He growls. He presses his palm into the bleeding wound.

Sakura pulls her bow over her head and lays it on the floor. "Let me see it." Sakura kneels down beside him, reaching out to touch it.

"Back the fuck off!" He wrenches away from her probing hands.

"Sasuke, let her look." Kakashi, ever the voice of reason, grinds out through hastened breaths.

"Guys, are we safe in here?" Naruto questions, panicked. "This is only an office building; I don't think it was made to protect against the walkers."

"It's going to have to hold until we find a way out!" Sakura snaps, pushing Sasuke's sleeve up to get a look at the cut. She shoves her bangs out of her face and reaches into her pack, thanking whatever cruel god out there that she went through enough medical school to perform sutures.

"Sakura, it's fine!" He begins to pull away from her.

"Stop being impossible! Let me at least clean it!" She snarls. "Kakashi, Naruto, can you begin to look for any way out of here?" Naruto hits a salute.

"Yessir!" He snips. She shoots a fierce glare at him before returning to Sasuke's arm. He winces as she presses a cloth she had previously soaked in rubbing alcohol against the cut, wiping gently. He clicks the safety of his beretta on before laying it on the floor next to him.

"We need to get out of here. Quickly." She says, pulling back from him. "That'll have to do for now until we get somewhere safe." She gets to her feet, taking her bow with her. She slings it over her back and begins to search the room. The door shakes behind her. Her breath catches nervously, but the door holds against the barrage of walkers.

Sakura hears Sasuke shuffle to his feet and the scrape of metal on tile floor from his gun. She pulls open a drawer, finding a box of bandaids. "Sasuke, come here, please." She rifles through the bandaid box, finding the largest size. She holds it up to the cut on his arm. "Good enough." She mumbles to herself, and with trembling fingers, peels it open and places the bandaid over the cut. Sasuke catches her hand in one of his.

"You're shaking." He states. She stares at her hand. "Breathe." She takes a deep breath, in, out.

In.

Out.

"Guys, I found a way to the roof!" Naruto exclaims from somewhere else in the building. Sakura winces at how loud his shout is, and the walkers pound against the door more forcefully in answer. Sasuke releases her hand, meeting her eyes.

"Go check what he's on about, I'll keep going through this shit." Sakura nods and jogs in the direction of the blonde's voice.

"Naruto?" She calls, walking by an elevator shaft.

"Up here!" Naruto suddenly drops down from above. Sakura jumps back, fingering her knife on instinct. "We can climb up through the elevator shaft up to the roof." Sakura bites her lip.

"No stairs?" She asks. He shakes his head.

"Must be in a different room." He shrugs. "It's better than hiding behind a door reinforced with a desk. Kakashi is already up there." Sakura nods.

"I'll go get Sas—"

"Fuck!" Sasuke comes barreling into the room. "They tore a hole in the door!" She meets Naruto's eyes and nods.

"Help me up." She steps into the elevator shaft and looks up at the panel that has been moved to open up the compartment. Naruto bends, holding out his hands. Sakura steps into them and pushes up, scrabbling for purchase on the elevator floor. She scrambles up and crawls away from the opening and holds her hand down.

Naruto is the next up, and she hears a loud crack. "What was that?" She calls just as she hears Sasuke's gun fire.

"Shit!" Naruto curses and holds his hand down. "Sasuke, come on!" Sasuke leaps up, grabbing onto the edge of the hole and Naruto's hand. The horrible hissing from the walkers comes closer, and Sakura grabs onto Sasuke's arm, helping Naruto pull him up.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck!" Sasuke yells. The muscles in his arms flex as he slowly pulls himself up.

"We're not going to make it!" Sakura grits, pulling as hard as she can. Kakashi suddenly appears, grabbing the collar of Sasuke's shirt and pulls him _hard _into the elevator. The walkers appear below the hole not a second after Sasuke backs away from the hole.

"This isn't the roof, Naruto." Sakura says, glancing around at another room of cubicles.

"No, but there are floor length windows that lead out to the roof." Kakashi answers, helping her to her feet. The office area is vacant; papers are scattered across the floor, and blood is ominously spread across a wall.

"Is this place clear?" She asks, making her way towards the windows.

"Yes. There was one walker wandering around up here, but Naruto took care of it." Kakashi replies, squeezing past her and leading the three of them out through a broken window. "Watch your step." Broken glass crunches underneath her tennis shoes. The hot, late summer sun beats down on them, and Sakura squints her eyes.

"There's our car." Kakashi points two blocks down where the silver minivan sits. Sakura looks down at the street below them.

"We could jump." Naruto offers. Sakura whirls on him.

"We'd break an ankle! And then how the hell are we going to run!?"

"It's not that far. We're only on the second story!"

"Easy for you to say, Mr. I Do Parkour In My Free Time!" She snaps.

"Sasuke, do you agree with me!?" Naruto and Sakura both turn on Sasuke. He cocks an eyebrow.

"Hn." He answers non-committedly.

"Sasuke, do you have the ammo we grabbed?" Kakashi asks. Sasuke nods.

"And Sakura, you have the medical supplies?" Kakashi says, turning to her.

"Yep!"

Kakashi thinks for a minute. "Naruto, can you drop down, drive the car over, and then we can drop onto the car?" As he speaks, he pulls the car keys out of his pocket and tosses them to Naruto.

"I get to drive!" He pumps his fist.

"We'll cover you from up here." Kakashi clicks the safety to his carbine off, and Sasuke does the same with his brretta. Naruto edges toward the side of the roof, and then drops off, hitting the ground with a roll. He sprints to the car, dodging the walkers on the street. He jumps into the car, starts it, and floors it, driving it up next to the building.

"Sasuke, you go first." Kakashi motions. Sasuke bends, hangs off the edge of the roof, and drops onto the van. He slides down smoothly, standing in front of the car door with his gun cocked.

"Sakura, go." She creeps up to the ledge, hesitantly moving to sit. She drops down, hitting the roof of the car with a loud thunk. Simultaneously, Sasuke shoots down an approaching walker, a ghastly woman with one eye missing and a jaw gaping unnaturally wide. Sakura is quick to scoot to the side and slide down. Sasuke catches her when she rolls her ankle and stumbles, and opens the car door for her. She jumps in, moving to the far back of the van and unslinging her bow from across her chest. Kakashi isn't far behind, and both he and Sasuke clamber into the car.

"Go Naruto!" Sakura yells. Naruto floors the gas, and Sakura is forced back into her seat with a lurch.

They clear the small city quickly, and once they've hit the open 210 highway, Kakashi leans forward. "Naruto, stop the car. I'm driving." Naruto whines, but pulls the car into a jerky stop and climbs into the passenger seat. Kakashi moves up into the driver's side. He switches the car into drive and pulls forward, driving them out into the open road.

"It's so empty out here," Sakura says, leaning to rest her head on the seat in front of her.

"It's inland California, what do you expect?" Naruto leans around the front seat to look at them.

"Mm," she hums, staring out the window at the barren landscape. The roads are empty besides the odd car they see parked on the side of the road every now and then. Their group has long since picked these cars dry and now has to scout into the smaller cities in the area to get supplies.

Not long after, Kakashi takes the Lake Arrowhead exit, driving the car up the winding road. He turns out onto a dirt path, slowing the car down significantly. He pulls over and shifts the car into park. "Alright, get out of my car," he jokes, opening the driver's side door. Sakura follows Sasuke out the door and closes it behind her, carrying her bow in one hand. After a short walk, they come to the small area that their group lives in.

"We're back!" Naruto exclaims. Akamaru is the first to greet them, the big Great Pyrenees bounding up and licking Naruto's hand. Kakashi carries the big bag of guns that they had managed to raid from a gun store and stashed in the car before the mass attack. He drops it to the ground in the center of the camp, and Sasuke bends down with his pack to get out the ammo. Sakura gently sets her pack down.

Camp is actually something of a generous term to describe their set up. Four tents are set up in a semi-circle just on the edge of the wooded area. Completing the semi-circle is a white kidnapper van that they keep supplies in. Currently, Shino and Choji sit atop the van, keeping watch for walkers or anything else out of the norm. Down a small dirt path, there is a lake that they use for fresh water and, as of recently, fishing. Kiba gets up from where he is sitting over by the tents with Ino and approaches them.

"These are the medical supplies we could grab." She says. "Where is everyone?" She asks.

"Shikamaru, Asuma, and Kurenai went to San Bernardino to get food and gas." Kiba replies as he takes stock of the weapons and ammo they managed to take.

"Do we need food that bad?" Sakura questions. "We could've gotten it down in Redlands." Kiba shrugs. She sighs and sits down against a tree and takes off a shoe. She rubs her ankle, examining it.

"You okay?" Sasuke asks, coming to stand in front of her. She nods, sending him a bright smile.

"Just twisted it coming off the van." She rotates her ankle a few times before pulling her shoe back on. "Are _you _okay? That was a close call." He nods, rubbing his arm.

"What happened?" Ino asks from where she sits by the tents.

"We just ran into some walkers while we were getting medical supplies." Sakura answers, shrugging. "We took care of it." She turns to Sasuke. "When do you think the others will come back?"

"How would I know?" He replies. "I'm going on a walk." He begins to leave.

"Hey, bastard! Where you going?" Naruto calls.

"None of your business." Sasuke retorts and continues to walk. Naruto visibly droops.

"He's probably going to… to go take care of his manly _needs._" Naruto mutters. Sakura chuckles.

"Naruto, come here." Naruto settles down next to her. "How are you holding up?" She inquires, meeting his eyes.

"I'm doing great! Y'know, except the whole dead people coming back to life thing…but other than that, no complaints." He grins.

"I mean…do you still think we'll find Hinata?" Naruto's grin fades, and he looks down at his feet.

"Of course we will." Naruto pauses. "We just need to keep looking! She's tough, she won't let these… these _walkers _get her! She was in medical school with you, she's smarter than those walkers!" He says as if to reassure both of them.

Sakura nods. "Right."


	2. two

_Sakura hears the click of the lock to her apartment door, and immediately after her door bangs open. She jumps, clenching her fist._

"_Sasuke…?" She says aloud, looking at his panicked expression._

"_We need to go. Pack your things." He orders, and she sees Naruto directly behind him._

"_What do you mean? Where are we going?" She puts down the dish she is drying._

"_What's going on?" Ino asks, coming out of her bedroom._

"_I don't know; they're freaking out about something." Sakura approaches Sasuke. "What is going on?"_

"_The dead are coming back to life!" Naruto yells, pushing past Sasuke into the apartment. "We need to get out of the city; we need to get somewhere where there are a lot fewer people!" He exclaims. Sakura stares at him dumbly._

"_Is this a joke?" Only then does she notice the blood spattered across Sasuke's shirt. "What happened?"_

"_Walkers. They attacked." He replies, grabbing her shoulders and guiding her farther back into the apartment. "Pack your things. Grab whatever weapons you have; you'll need them." His dark blue, almost black, eyes are rimmed red. His normally pale skin is even whiter than normal, and he looks…scared. Suddenly, she realizes with painful certainty this isn't a joke._

_Sakura glances back at Ino, but she is already gone. She can hear the sound of drawers opening and closing in her bedroom and the zip of a backpack. Sakura sighs heavily._

"_Okay." She turns back to go into her room. Naruto follows her in._

"_We don't have much time. Grab some clothes, maybe a flashlight if you have it? God, I don't know. I'm not prepared for this." His voice is strained._

"_Naruto, go into my bathroom and grab as many medical supplies. Band-aids, Neosporin, bandages, anything you can find." She pauses. "And my toothbrush and toothpaste!" He disappears into the bathroom. She considers for a second. "And grab my pads and tampons!"_

"_WHAT!? SAKURA!" Naruto protests loudly. Sakura chuckles, going to her closet and pulling down her red duffel bag. She grabs her jacket, an extra pair of jeans, and a few t-shirts. She then crosses to her dresser and grabs a handful of panties, a bra, and socks. From the kitchen, she can hear Sasuke rifling through the cabinets, and she figures he is grabbing food._

_Naruto returns with her things, though he is holding her feminine items as far away from him as possible. She shoves them into her bag and glances into her closet._

"_My bow…" She trails off before running over and unzipping her bag. She quickly slides the limbs into the riser and strings her bow._

"_That's perfect!" Naruto exclaims. Sakura clips her quiver on her belt and slides her arrows in. She has eighteen arrows._

"_Shit, we have to go!" Sasuke calls from the kitchen. Naruto shoulder Sakura's pack, and jogs into the living room-kitchen area. Sakura almost bumps into Ino, and she is astonished to see a handgun clipped to Ino's belt._

"_Where did you get _that!" _Sakura questions. Ino merely smirks._

"_Are you done? We need to go!" Sasuke says impatiently. Sakura and Ino follow the boys out the door. As they hurry down the stairs, she gets a whiff of an awful smell that immediately starts to burn her eyes. Sakura yelps as she turns the corner and catches sight of a…a thing just outside the building. The smell intensifies, causing her to bend over and gag, and its eyes are bloodshot. Skin is peeling off its face, and its jaw hangs wide open like the bone is broken. A horrible, raspy growl emits from its mouth as it shuffles quickly towards them._

_Without any hesitation, Sasuke steps forward and pulls a knife from his belt. He smoothly buries it hilt-deep into it's eye, specks of blood spattering the grim line of his face._

"_You…you killed him!" Sakura says. He glances over his shoulder._

"_It was already dead."_

* * *

**seven steps to death**

* * *

It is nearly nightfall when they can hear an approaching car engine. Sakura looks up from her book, one of the few items of leisure she had been able to grab when the world had begun to end. Kiba and Choji are down by the lake fishing with gear they had scrounged up last week, and Sasuke is sitting on top of the large white van with an assault rifle in his lap, keeping watch. Naruto stands up, switching off his old-school Gameboy. "Where's Kakashi?" He asks.

"He went to check the surrounding area." Sakura replies. Approaching footsteps signify the return of Shikamaru, Kurenai, and Asuma.

Except…Asuma isn't there.

Shikamaru drops a large duffel bag on the ground and immediately walks away into the trees. Kurenai's eyes are swollen and rimmed red. Sakura feels her stomach drop to her feet. "Oh god, no."

"Asuma…?" Ino says, standing. Tears are already forming in her eyes. Shaking her head, Kurenai leaves, taking the path leading down to the lake. Sakura draws in a shuddering breath and pulls her knees into her chest.

Not long after, Choji and Kiba return with the few fish that they managed to catch. "Kurenai is down there by herself. What happened?" Kiba asks. Everyone is silent.

"Asuma didn't come back." Sasuke finally speaks up from atop the white van.

"Oh." Kiba mutters. "Well…we should cook these. We can have them for dinner." He glances at Choji. "You're the best at cooking, Choji." Kiba says. Choji smiles softly, staring down at the ground.

Shikamaru and Kakashi come out of the trees together some time later, after the fire has been started, and Choji has begun to cook the fish. Their expressions are dismal, and Sakura can't help but think that maybe things won't get better. There has been no mention of a cure, and it had been more than a month since the dead had started coming back. Things seemed more hopeless by the day.

Sasuke slides off of the van, and Kakashi takes his place. Sasuke approaches where Naruto and Sakura sit and kneels down. "Kakashi's pretty broken up over this." He says.

Sakura rubs at her forehead. "Asuma was his friend." She points out. "After what happened with Rin…"

"Be quiet, you don't want him to hear." Sasuke cuts her off.

"Yeah…we aren't even supposed to know…" Naruto trails off. "Maybe I should go try to cheer him up—"

"No." Sakura and Sasuke say in unison. Naruto wilts.

"I think he just needs some time." Sakura glances up at Kakashi briefly.

"I don't understand how it could happen to Asuma. He was always so strong…"Naruto wonders aloud.

"It doesn't matter how strong you are when a horde of hungry walkers is coming after you." Sasuke replies, leaning back. Sakura rubs her hands up and down her arms, trying to get some warmth. With them as high up in the mountains as they are, the chill is quick to permeate the area once the sun sets. She isn't exactly sure what they will do when winter comes and snow starts to fall. She doesn't like to think that far ahead.

"I'll light a fire." Sasuke offers, noticing her movements. She smiles gratefully as he gets up to collect firewood. Lighting a fire can be dangerous, but when it comes down to it, it's preferable to freezing to death. Once the sun truly goes down, Sakura will have to retreat to the tent that she and Ino share and hide under the blankets.

They have several tents set up with two to three people per tent, and they each have their own sleeping bag and pillow that they'd found at some point in their scavenging. It's a bit crude and primeval, but they get by on what they have. Luxuries are scarce and a good night of sleep is even scarcer. She doesn't think Sasuke has slept properly in days.

While Sasuke gets the firewood, Sakura wanders over to her tent and digs into her things, finding her red flannel shirt. She unbuttons it and pulls it on, trying to ignore the fact that it—actually, none of their clothes—hadn't been washed for quite sometime. She didn't have much time to grab things from her house when she left, only thinking to bring her bow when she saw Sasuke's gun hanging at his hip.

As she returns to the spot she previously occupied, Sasuke comes out of the trees with the firewood and uses his lighter to light dried brush before tossing it in with the sticks.

Kurenai resurfaces before full dark and climbs up onto the van with Kakashi. Sakura can see them speaking quietly with each other, but she can't make out any of their words.

Asuma isn't the first person they've lost, and she doesn't think he will be the last.

Darkness is upon them quickly, and Sakura can feel her body starting to grow tired. She always feels more fatigued when they have an encounter with walkers. She shivers, scooting closer to the fire and pulls at the sleeves of her flannel shirt.

"Do you think we'll need to run into town tomorrow?" She asks, glancing up across the flames at Sasuke. His angular face is accentuated by the flames. He shrugs.

"Maybe. I doubt the other group was able to get much food before…" He trails off, glancing away.

"We probably could use more gas in the cars too." Naruto speaks up, meeting Sakura's eyes. She sighs.

"Yeah." She pauses. "I wish I knew if my parents made it out okay." She looks up at Sasuke. "Do you know anything about your parents or your brother?" He stiffens, his jaw clenching.

"No." He replies, his voice terse. He obviously doesn't want to get into the topic.

"Well, I'm going to get some sleep. It's been a long day." She gets to her feet, brushing the dirt off the back of her jeans.

"Good night, Sakura!" Naruto exclaims, grinning brightly. Sasuke lifts a hand in a wave, and Sakura turns to head towards the tents. Ino and Shikamaru are cozied up together, and Akamaru is digging in the dirt off at the tree-line. She waves to Ino.

"I'll be in soon, too." Her roommate says, snuggling closer to Shikamaru. Sakura smiles softly.

Sakura crawls into the tent, collapsing onto her sleeping bag. She curls up on her side, staring sullenly at the tent wall. The day had been exhausting—raiding in town always is. She is asleep in minutes.

Several hours later, she wakes up to Akamaru barking. She squints her eyes in the darkness, brushing it off before she hears Ino's ear-piercing scream.

"WALKERS!"


	3. three

_They have just reached the outskirts of Los Angeles when Sasuke's car runs out of gas. At the nearest gas station, Sasuke pulls in and parks at a dispenser. Sakura watches him get out of the car and glances at Ino, who is sitting in the backseat of the Infiniti with her._

"_What do you think is happening?" Sakura wonders aloud._

"_The world's all gone to hell, that's what." Naruto replies, twisting around in the front seat to look at her._

"_You wouldn't know those things are out there just by looking around. People seem to be going about their business just fine…" She says, leaning her elbow on the side of the car._

"_I wouldn't have believed it if the bastard hadn't looked so shaken up when he showed up at my place." Naruto twists back around._

_Sakura sighs and opens the car door, stepping out into the summer sunlight. Sasuke is staring blankly ahead as the tank fills. Sakura reaches inside her bag, pulling out a pack of Kleenex._

"_You have blood on your face." She says as she reaches out to rub it off of his cheek. His eyes flick to meet hers for a brief second before moving away. His fists are clenched so tight that his knuckles have turned white. "How did you know about the walkers?" She asks, tossing the bloody tissue into the trash can by the gas pump._

"_You know about them too?" A man's voice cuts in. Sakura snaps around, and Sasuke reaches behind him, his hand resting on the gun tucked into his pants. The man has silvery-blonde hair, streaked with gray. He is tall enough to see eye-to-eye with Sasuke, and he's got his hands tucked in his pockets._

"_I don't know what you're talking about." Sasuke says coldly._

"_The, uh, what did you call them? The walkers, yeah? The dead coming back to life?" Sakura stiffens at his words. "It's getting bad at the coast and around the hospitals. Too many people in one place, I suppose." His tone is casual, but she can see the grim lines on his face and his pained expression. "My name's Kakashi, and I'm heading out of town to a friend's place in Rancho, if you want to accompany me."_

"_Why should we go with you?" Sasuke growls, his hand hiking up his shirt to finger his gun._

"_Because when the dead aren't staying dead, who can you trust other than the living?"_

* * *

**seven steps to death**

* * *

Sakura is instantly awake and reaching for her bow and quiver of arrows. Struggling with the zipper to the tent, she can hear the camp break out into madness and the horrible growling of walkers. Finally ripping the zipper open, she comes out of the tent to a scene of madness. Several walkers are savaging Akamaru, his frantic whines piercing the air, and Sasuke is running towards her, his gun cocked.

She draws an arrow and nocks it, pulling the string back to full draw and anchoring her hand beneath her jaw. Narrowing her eyes, she points the sight at an approaching walker, its half eaten abdomen wide open and stinking. She lets the arrow fly, and it embeds neatly in the walker's eye.

Gunshots ring through the air, and she screams when she feels hands on her shoulders. She lurches away from the walker, drawing her knife.

"Duck!" Sasuke roars from a short distance in front of her, his dark eyes wide open and his gun in his hand. She does so without thinking, dropping to her knees. The gun fires, and the walker that had grabbed her drops to the ground, half of its face blown away. Her ears ring painfully from the din of gun shots. She can hear Naruto yelling wildly as he takes swings at the walkers with an axe, and she quickly struggles back to her feet.

"Sakura, get your back to the van!" Kakashi orders her, materializing beside her and guiding her back. Sakura bumps into the cool metal of the white van and she gets a full view of the chaos. Nearly twenty-five walkers have set upon the camp in the dark of the night, and everything is in disarray. Kurenai and Ino are huddled by the tents, Ino gripping a knife with white knuckles. Kakashi has moved to stand in front of them, covering them with a double-barrel shotgun.

She quickly picks off a walker at Sasuke's back, holding her breath as she releases the arrow. Cold sweat runs down the back of her neck, and adrenaline hums through her veins as her heart pounds furiously against her ribs. The gunfire reverberates through her body as Sasuke shoots another walker point-blank in the head.

"Naruto, behind you!" She screams. Whipping around, Naruto embeds his axe in a giant walker's skull. Even though they have automatic assault rifles, it's too dangerous to risk firing off a large amount of shots with so many of their own spread out in the fight.

Suddenly, a child walker is right in front of her, too close for her to shoot with her bow. She reaches for her knife too slow, reaching her hand out to push her hand up under the walker's jaw. It growls in her face, the rotting smell burning her nostrils and eyes. Her breaths come in quick bursts, her arm straining against the force of the hungry walker, as small as it is. It strains at her, its jaw moving up and down and fingers reaching for her like tentacles. She kicks out, catching it in the stomach hard enough to force it away, which gives her time to rip her knife out of her belt and thrust it into the walker's eye. It drops down immediately, pulling her knife down with it.

Sasuke appears in front of her, his gun firing once before he turns to her. "Are you okay? Are you bit?" He asks, running his hands up and down her arms and over her shoulders, shoving the neck of her shirt to the side to check for any bites. She can feel the cold metal of his gun in one hand, and his movements are jerky and frantic, his eyes wide.

"I'm fine!" She glances over her shoulder, gasping. "Behind you!" He reacts instantly, bodily yanking her to the side, lifting his gun and firing. Except instead of firing, it clicks emptily.

"Fuck!" He swears. Sasuke lunges forward, throwing his weight into the walker. It stumbles, dropping down to its knees. Gritting his teeth, he clamps down on its hair with his hands and bashes it into the side of the van twice before the walker drops, finally dead. Blood and brain matter smears across the white paint of the van in stark contrast.

Casting a look over the entire camp, she sees Kiba take down the final walker in the camp with a precise shot to the forehead. Sakura lets out a breath that she hadn't realized she'd been holding and slumps against the van. She bends down to retrieve her knife from the child walker, wiping it on the remains of the walker's clothes.

Kiba walks to the edge of camp, where Akamaru's body lays, his body covered in blood. He drops to his knees in front of his dog, his body shaking. Sakura glances up at where Sasuke towers over her, standing nearly a head taller than her. His clothes are spattered with blood, and his bangs fall messily over his face.

"Is everyone okay?" Ino dares to ask. Sakura hazards a glance around, mentally ticking off all of the members of their group.

"Everyone except Akamaru." Kakashi supplies, stepping forward, carrying a shovel. He tosses it to the ground. "We bury the dog, burn the rest." Everyone nods in silent agreement. Kiba gets to his feet, rubbing at his eyes.

"He saved us by barking at them." He says. Everyone is quiet. He picks up the shovel from where it lays, and walks off into the woods.

"Kiba, you shouldn't go alone!" Ino calls after him.

"I'll go with him and look for any more." Shikamaru offers, following Kiba into the woods. Shino and Choji trail behind them, armed with guns and knives. Sasuke motions to Naruto and the two of them and Kakashi begin moving the walkers into a pile to the side of camp.

"Do you guys need help?" Sakura asks, taking a couple hesitant steps forward. The three men glance up at her.

"Sure." Kakashi smiles kindly at her, and she moves to grab a walker's feet. Sasuke laces his hands around its shoulders and lifts. As they carry it towards the pile of bodies, she watches him carefully.

"Are you okay?" She asks, helping him toss it into the pile.

"I'm fine." He answers flatly, heading towards another walker. Sakura cocks an eyebrow.

"You don't sound fine." Sakura lowers her voice. "You aren't bit, are you?" He glares at her.

"Of course I'm not bit." He snaps.

She flinches at his tone. "You don't have to be mean."

Sasuke sighs, tossing another body in the pile and following her to the next walker body. "That was too close." He says. He fixes his harsh gaze on her. "You almost got bit."

"But I didn't." She shrugs. "I managed. It's over." She says, trying to sound upbeat and positive about the situation.

"We need to get out of southern California. It's too crowded down here." He mutters softly, just loud enough so that she can hear but too quiet for the others to hear. She looks up at him.

"You sound like you've thought about this." She bumps shoulders with him as they cross to the next walker.

"Kakashi and I have talked." He answers vaguely. He reaches down to grab the walker's arm, when it suddenly lunges forward, its jaw gaping open to bite at him. Sasuke stumbles back, ripping his arm away and falling to the ground.

"Sasuke!" Sakura shouts, fumbling at her belt for her knife. The walker has turned over and is dragging its body along the ground towards Sasuke. Finally, Sakura wrenches her knife free and she leaps forward, burying it in the back of the walker's head. She meets Sasuke's eyes over the hilt of the knife.

"Maybe you're right." She says, yanking her knife out.

"You guys all right?" Naruto calls, standing up from where he is starting a fire.

"Yeah." Sakura affirms, wiping the knife off and sheathing it again. She and Sasuke carry the walker over to the growing pile of bodies and toss it in.

Some time later, the fire is roaring, and the scent of burning flesh singes the air. Twenty-seven walkers in all had attacked camp. Kiba returns with muddy fingers and tosses the shovel on the ground. Silently, he picks up Akamaru's body and carries it away into the woods.

Sakura sits on the ground next to Sasuke and Naruto, her arms wrapped around her knees. "I suppose we'll need to wash clothes in the morning." She says in an attempt to lighten the mood.

"I guess we will." Naruto replies, looking down at his bloody shirt. Sakura leans into Sasuke, resting her head on his shoulder tiredly. She reaches for Naruto's hand and grasps it.

"What a day." She murmurs. Sasuke shifts slightly, extending his arm out behind her.

"Yeah. I wonder what tomorrow will be like." Naruto squeezes her hand. Sakura sees Kakashi walk around from the other side and meet Sasuke's eyes. Sasuke nods slightly, and she feels his jaw move by her head as he mouths something to Kakashi.

"Naruto." Sasuke says softly. "We need to leave here."

"What? Why?" Naruto asks, sitting up straight and turning to look at Sasuke.

"It's not safe here anymore." Sasuke replies. Sakura reaches a hand up and threads her fingers through Sasuke's dark hair. He leans into her fingers as she massages his scalp.

"Where do we go then?" Naruto leans forward to meet Sasuke's eyes.

"I'm not sure yet." He tilts his head more into Sakura's hand, sighing.

"We'll find somewhere." Sakura declares. They fall into silence, the sound of distant, broken sobs the only thing between them and peace.


	4. four

_It's been three weeks since the outbreak.._

_Since then, the small group of Ino, Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura has grown to include Kakashi and his friends from Rancho, Asuma and Kurenai. After packing up as many supplies as possible from Asuma and Kurenai's house, they managed to find a good place to bunker down just off the road leading to Lake Arrowhead._

"_We're going to take 330 down to Highland. We should be able to find enough supplies and gas to last us a while." Kakashi says from where he sits at the steering wheel. Sakura fingers her bow, which sits across her lap. Naruto sits in front of her in the second row of the minivan, and Sasuke is sitting in the passenger seat with a map spread across his knees._

_But it's been three weeks since the outbreak, and they are running out of supplies._

_The road winds ahead of them, and Sakura can feel anxiety creeping in. They haven't gone this close to populous areas in nearly two and a half weeks after a failed expedition to attempt to buy supplies, and none of them have a solid grasp of how bad things might have gotten._

_They take the first exit they find that leads to civilization, Highland Avenue, and they immediately come upon a deserted Wal-Mart._

"_Be careful. We need to get in and out quickly." Sasuke warns, folding up the map when Kakashi pulls into the parking lot._

"_Do you all have the radios?" Kakashi shifts the car into park at the curb._

"_Yep!" Naruto exclaims, holding up his walkie-talkie._

"_If you see anything at all, people or walkers, radio in with your location." Kakashi undoes his seat belt. The three of them do the same and climb out of the car. "Grab non-perishables and anything you think will be useful. I'll look for weapons."_

_Sakura nods. Kakashi opens up the back of the car, and each of them grabs a large bag to fill._

_Grabbing her flashlight out of the trunk, Sakura follows the three men into the store. The store is completely black with only a bit of residual light coming from the doors, the power having been cut. "This is so weird." Sakura muses aloud quietly, taking a few steps forward._

"_Let's go." Sasuke's voice comes out of the darkness. Nodding to herself, Sakura takes a right and casts the flashlight around the store. She heads to the back of the store, planning to work her way forward to the entrance. Sakura finds herself in the clothes department, casting her flashlight around. Lifting her walkie-talkie, she radios in._

"_Do you guys want me to get clothes?" The walkie-talkie beeps when she releases the call button._

"_You might as well." Kakashi's voice comes in through the radio. Sakura begins to grab clothes that she think might fit the men, folding them neatly in order to pack them into the bag. She does the same in the women's department for herself, Ino, and Kurenai._

"_Guys, I just ran into a walker. Took care of it." Naruto exclaims into the walkie-talkie. Sakura winces at the volume of his voice. With the walkers around, wouldn't it be more prudent to remain quiet?_

_After she deems she has collected enough clothes, Sakura moves forward and happens upon the pharmacy. Biting her lip, she silently makes the decision to try to get in. She hops over the counter and opens the door to the room holding the medicine._

_Suddenly, the alarm starts to go off, accompanied with brief flashes of light from the mechanism._

"_What is that?" Sasuke's voice echoes through the walkie-talkie. Sakura can feel her heart pounding against her ribs._

"_The alarm on the pharmacy is going off," she says into the radio, panic lacing her voice._

"_Get out of there!" Naruto cries. She hesitates before she resolves to collect as many supplies as possible, because they sure as hell need them. She finds bandages and painkillers and tosses them in her bag. She happens upon another aisle, and looks at the names of the medicine._

_Oxycotin. Vicodin._

_She quickly grabs the bottle of Vicodin and searches frantically for antibiotics that they potentially could so desperately need. She can already hear shuffling footsteps and growling when she finds it. She grabs the giant bottle and shoves it in her bag and hurries to the edge of the aisle. At the sight of what must be five walkers standing ominously at the door of the room, she bites down on her lip hard. She lifts her walkie-talkie._

"_Help me! Walkers!" She whispers in. No reply._

_Tears form at her eyes, and Sakura drops down into a squat. She creeps back down the aisle and out of sight of the door. The smell hits her like a battering ram, and she presses a hand to her mouth. The alarm rings in her ears like a death-sentence, and she starts shaking with terror. Holding the emergency button on the walkie-talking, she waits for the alarm on it to go off. She slides it across the room, hoping to attract them to the radio._

_Surprisingly, it works, and the shuffling moves away from her. Letting out a sigh of relief, she scuttles towards the door, and turns a corner straight into a walker. She screams out of reflex, falling back onto the floor. She kicks out furiously, pulling herself backwards on the floor._

I'm going to die_, she thinks. Tears fall furiously down her face, and she can't catch her breath. Belatedly, she realizes she has a knife at her hip, but her hands shake too much to reach for it._

_A gunshot rings through the room, the sound reverberating in her ears like buzzing bees. The walker in front of her drops to the floor, and she quickly scrambles to her feet. Kakashi stands in front of her for a brief second before he is in motion, firing off another shot to take down one of the walkers that was previously going after the walkie-talkie._

_Sakura pulls her bow over her head and nocks an arrow with shaking fingers. Taking a deep breath to calm herself, she pulls the string back until it presses against the tip of her nose and her lips. She sucks in a breath and fires, and the arrow embeds in a walker's forehead._

_Two more gunshots later, the walkers are all dead. Sakura's bow clatters to the floor as she drops it, tears rolling down her face. Kakashi approaches her, picking her bow up and wrapping a comforting arm around her shoulders. Pounding footsteps signal the approach of Sasuke and Naruto._

"_I think we're done here." Kakashi says._

* * *

**seven steps to death**

* * *

By morning, things have returned to normal…ish.

Sakura and Ino sit at the edge of the lake, scrubbing at clothes in order to get the blood out. Sakura's pink hair is tied into a knot on top of her head, and she is wearing a red tank top that is maybe a little too small for her. Ino's damp hair drips all over her jeans, having taken a short swim earlier to wash off.

Sasuke and Naruto are sitting on a modestly sized stone jutting out of the water a short distance from shore. They had both swam over there, simultaneously find a private place to speak and wash the blood off their skin.

"Don't think I don't see you looking at Sasuke." Ino says under her breath, flashing a suggestive grin.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Sakura snaps, vigorously scrubbing at a dirt stain in a pair of her jeans.

Ino laughs softly. "Old habits die hard, forehead." Sakura feels her face heat up. Back when she first met the boys in undergrad, Sakura had a _bit _of a crush on Sasuke, but nothing had ever happened. After they graduated, though, Sasuke and Naruto had gone into business administration and Sakura went to med school, and three had drifted apart some.

When Sasuke and Naruto showed up at her apartment, when everything went to shit, it had been the first time in weeks that she'd seen them.

The sound of gentle splashing causes her to look up to see Naruto and Sasuke approaching. Sasuke grabs his shirt from the ground where he'd left it before getting in the water.

"How's it going?" Naruto asks, grinning.

"Fine, no thanks to you boys." Ino replies. Naruto's grin turns sheepish.

"Well, y'know, I'm no good at washing things and…that whole thing about too many cooks in a kitchen, right?" He makes his escape quickly.

Sakura rolls her eyes. "Lazy!" She calls after him. Only then does she realize that Sasuke is also leaving. "Sasuke Uchiha! Get back here and help!" She yells. He casts an arrogant smirk over his shoulder as he leaves.

"Boys." Ino mutters, shaking her head.

Several hours later, long after laundry has been done and the two girls are lounging by the water, Shikamaru comes down to the lake.

"Kakashi wants to talk to everyone." He holds his hand out to Ino. She takes it, and after she is standing, her hand lingers in his for a time. Sakura follows them up to camp, having an inkling of what Kakashi want to talk about.

Everyone is gathered around the tents, and Kakashi and Sasuke are standing off to the side. Meeting Sasuke's eyes, Sakura nods.

"I'll just get straight to the point; it's not effective to stay here anymore." Kakashi's voice cuts through the heavy silence.

"Why do you say that?" Kurenai asks, crossing her arms.

Sasuke steps forward. "Not only did we just get attacked, we need to get somewhere less crowded."

"And where would that be, exactly?" Kiba bites out, leveling a glare at Sasuke.

"North." Kakashi replies, his tone light, in an attempt to keep things from escalating.

Commotion breaks out.

"Why would we go north? It's cold enough here!"

"Why not the coast? We could get a boat!"

"Yes! A boat!"

Sakura watches silently as everyone in the group seemed to simultaneously agree on the boat. She glances over Ino's head to Naruto, where he has grown very still. Swallowing a lump in her throat, she steps forward.

"Guys!" She yells over the din. "If we go to the coast, there will be more walkers! There are always more walkers in densely populated areas!" She meets Kakashi's eyes.

"But if we get a _boat…_" Ino replies, grabbing Sakura's hand. "Walkers can't swim!"

"How many people do you think have come to the exact same conclusion?" Sakura says.

"Sakura is right!" Naruto speaks up. "We should do as Kakashi and Sasuke say!"

"Why would north be any better?"

"There's got to be some kind of boat left!"

The argument continues on. No conclusion has been met when Kakashi finally sighs. "I suppose this is where we part ways then."

A hushed silence falls over the camp. Ino begins to cry next to Sakura.

"We need to stick together. Asuma would have wanted—" Kurenai begins.

"It doesn't matter what Asuma would've wanted! He's dead!" Kakashi yells suddenly. Sakura flinches at his tone.

"Then I suppose that's what we'll have to do." Shikamaru says.

A couple hours later, the camp is packed up, and the group is ready to leave. Sakura embraces Ino tightly while the blonde cries.

"Why are you leaving? Come with us!" Ino sobs, grasping Sakura tightly. Sakura can feel tears pricking her eyes, and her grip on Ino strengthens. The two of them have been living together since undergrad and have been friends since middle school.

"I can't…I just can't." Sakura pauses. "Make sure you take care of yourself! Don't get too caught up with your hair or how you look. Stay safe; don't get pregnant!" Sakura laughs.

Ino leans her head in closer to whisper to Sakura. "Go jump his bones, Sakura. Take a running leap onto his dick. Please."

"Pig! Really?!" Sakura leans away from the blonde, glaring. Ino laughs through her tears.

"Be careful, okay, Forehead? You can get through this; I know you can." Ino latches onto Sakura again.

"Sakura." Sasuke's voice comes from behind her.

Releasing Ino, Sakura rubs at her eyes furiously. "We'll see each other again, yeah?"

Ino nods in reply as Shikamaru takes her hand, leading her away. As her heart breaks, Sakura turns away and heads toward the minivan that is loaded up their group's allotted supplies. Sasuke threads an arm around her shoulders, pulling her against him.

Sakura climbs into the back seat of the van with Sasuke, with Naruto riding shotgun and Kakashi driving. Warm, silent tears roll down her face as she buckles her seatbelt.

"We'll see them again, Sakura." Naruto says, twisting around in the front seat to meet her eyes. Sakura rubs at her eyes again, sniffling. She feels so stupid, like a baby.

Sasuke grabs her hand, squeezing it tightly. "They're smart. They'll be fine." He reassures her.

"So where exactly are we going?" Naruto turns to Kakashi.

"We'll take 15 up to the high desert, and from there we'll cut across the Mojave to get to 5. Hopefully once we reach the farm lands, we'll be able to find somewhere to set up base." Kakashi pauses. "We'll need to stop along the way to siphon gas somewhere."

The group is silent for the drive until they reach a bend in the road on 15, at which point they come upon a group of cars. Kakashi pulls to a stop next to them and shifts the car to park. Leaping out of the car, Sakura immediately walks away. She hasn't been separated from Ino in years, and in times like these, despite their final words, there really is no guarantee that they will ever see each other again.

"Sakura, stay in sight." Kakashi calls after her, opening the trunk of the van and pulling out the mechanism to siphon gas from the cars.

Sakura climbs up the sloping land to their right, scrambling for purchase in the dry brush. When she reaches a point where the land evens out, far above the highway, she finally stops and sits down. The road stretches on before them into the high desert where all she can see is dry brush and dirt.

It seems bleak, to think this is what they had to look forward to: the desert wasteland of Southern California.

* * *

_Meanwhile…_

_Deep in the City of Angels, something stirs._

_Thousands of shuffling feet move towards an unattainable goal._

_The city has been picked clean._

_North, it is._

* * *

**AN: Please review! And check out the playlist link on my profile to see the playlist I made :)**_  
_


	5. five

_Kakashi speeds into the driveway of his modest home, braking with a sharp jerk. His hands shake violently as scenes from the hospital flash before his eyes. Scenes of the corpses, scenes of Obito being pulled back. He shifts the car into the park before ripping the keys from the ignition. Fumbling for the house key, he rushes to the door and finds it already unlocked._

"_Rin, we need to go!" He calls into the house, rushing into the bedroom he and his wife share. Digging in the closet, Kakashi finds their handgun and ammunition. At the sound of shuffling feet behind him, he begins to turn._

"_Rin—" He is cut off as she lunges for him, baring her teeth and growling deep in her throat. Panicking, Kakashi thrusts his hand forward, gripping at her neck to force her away as they tumble to the ground. Her normally warm, brown eyes are glazed over, and he can see a bright, red bite mark on the arm that is reaching for him._

_Despair hits him like an eighteen-wheeler, a heavy weight settling in the pit of his stomach. He had heard the news reports on TV, seen them in the hospital while he'd been visiting Obito, and he knows with utmost certainty that Rin is…gone._

_Kakashi kicks out from where he lays, catching her in the abdomen and forcing her back a few steps. The horrible, raspy growling in her throat increases in volume as she falls backwards. He moves to grab the gun where it'd landed when they fell, its weight suddenly heavy in his hands. He scrambles to his feet and points it at her head, hands shaking violently. He had seen the things go down only after being hit in the head at the hospital. His breaths stutter through his throat as tears begin to cloud his vision. _

_The…the _thing _begins to get back to its feet._

BANG.

* * *

**seven steps to death**

* * *

They stop in Wrightwood for the night, a lightly populated mountain town. Sasuke's family owns a vacation home in the area, and Sasuke pulls up to the house, shifting the car into park. The house is a modestly sized mountain cabin with a steep roof. Sakura hops out of the car, bending down to touch her toes in a stretch. Sasuke circles around to the trunk and grabs his bag of belongings.

"What are you looking for?" Naruto asks, leaning up against the van. Sasuke pointedly ignores the blonde, rifling through the bag. Kakashi approaches the house, gun in hand.

"Found them." Sasuke mutters, withdrawing a ring full of keys.

"You have the keys?" Sakura says, cocking an eyebrow.

"Hn." Sasuke slowly looks through the keys before seeming to find what he is looking for. Naruto hefts his and Sakura's bags onto his shoulder and carries it to the front step behind Sasuke. Sasuke slides the key into the lock and turns, and it clicks as it unlocks.

The door swings open to a dark house illuminated only by the setting sun. Sasuke and Kakashi slowly move in, guns ready. The house is eerily silent when suddenly something in the kitchen crashes to the ground. Sakura jumps at the sound, and Sasuke rounds the corner, gun pointed forward.

"Fucking cat." Sasuke swears. Sakura can't help but laugh as a black and white blur streaks past them and out the door. "The window screen is torn." Sasuke mutters, setting his gun on the counter. "We'll need to go into town to get food. We don't keep food here."

"Naruto and I can go," Kakashi offers.

Sasuke crosses the kitchen and opens a drawer, pulling out another set of keys. He tosses them to Kakashi. "Open the garage; there's a truck there that you can take. It should have gas."

"I'm driving!" Naruto is the first to leave the house to head out to the small garage, and Kakashi follows.

"I've never been here," Sakura says, tracing her hand against the expensive oak cabinets. Sasuke's family had always been wealthy, but she did not expect their vacation home to be as quaint as it is. She flicks on a light switch just for the sake of testing if there was power.

"We only came here as a family. Naruto's the only one outside that's seen it," Sasuke replies absent-mindedly, going through the drawers and cupboards to look for supplies. Sakura wanders to the kitchen table nestled in the corner by a window. It looks out to a small yard overgrown with weeds. Just by the kitchen is the living room, which has a large couch and an LCD TV that will not work with the lack of power.

"Do you guys have any candles that we can use once the sun goes down?" She asks, scuffing her foot against the wood floor awkwardly. This place seems so unlike what she had imagined Sasuke's family vacation home would be like; the one time she had been to his parents' house had been so intimidating due to its lack of decoration and impeccable cleanliness, whereas this house was so homey and inviting.

Well, it would be if circumstances were different.

"I think so," he replies, leaving the kitchen to head down a hallway. Sakura follows him, examining the family pictures that hang on the walls. Sasuke opens a small linen closet off the hallway and pulls out a box of candles and several blankets.

"Here, let me help." Sakura offers, taking the blankets out of his arms. She glances past him to see a door that leads to the bathroom, and there are two more doors at the end of the hall. "What are those doors?"

"My…parents' room and the office," he responds flatly. Sakura follows him back into the living room, where he pulls off the cushions on the couch and pulls it out into a queen bed.

"Is this where you and your brother slept?" Sakura asks. She puts down the blankets on it, and Sasuke casts a sharp look at her, before nodding tightly.

"Make yourself comfortable." He rakes a hand through his hair before heading outside.

Sakura glances around the room, her eyes falling on a family picture sitting on the mantle of the fireplace. Picking it up, she smiles softly. Sasuke and his brother stand in front of their parents, and she judges that Sasuke must be no older than ten in this picture. The family is standing in front of the house with snow in the background, and they all look so…happy. What a novel concept happiness is these days.

She sets the picture back down and moves to look at a small bookcase in the corner of the room. The shelves are full of medical texts, and she remembers that Sasuke's parents both worked at the hospital in their town. Moving further down the bookcase, she finds plenty of books that must have belonged to the two boys, including, ironically, _The Zombie Survival Guide_. Glancing around, she picks it out and begins to leaf through its pages.

Some time passes before Sasuke returns with a tool kit, several wooden boards, and tarps they must have used to cover the cars when it snowed. He takes one glance at the book in her hands and snorts.

"Really?" He cocks an eyebrow, setting the things on the ground by the door.

"It might be useful!" Sakura retorts.

Sasuke rolls his eyes. "Anything we haven't already figured out?"

"It says to have short hair and use bikes instead of cars." At the sight of him pulling out a pair of scissors from the tool kit, Sakura makes an x with her fingers. "Don't you dare touch my hair!" She assumes a defensive position on the floor where she sits. He slowly advances on her, and she kicks out.

"Come on, Sakura, you know what the book says," Sasuke murmurs, grabbing her leg and dragging her on the ground towards him.

"Sasuke, stop!" She yells despite laughing, latching onto the legs of the pull-out couch to hold herself still. A small, rare smile appears on his face. The abrupt sound of a car on the street causes them both to freeze. Sasuke releases her and grabs the hammer out of the tool bag. Sakura scrambles to her feet and hurries over to the door to look through the peephole.

"Sakura, get away from there—"

"It's fine! It's Naruto and Kakashi!" She snaps, opening the door. Naruto jumps out of the car, carrying a canvas bag. She notices blood on his face, and she stares at him in alarm.

"We ran into walkers in town." Naruto says before she can even question him. Kakashi is slower getting out of the truck, carrying another bag. "We took care of them."

"Idiot, you better not have used your gun," Sasuke mutters, appearing behind her in the doorway.

"Give me some credit, I'm not stupid! We were creative." Naruto grins, pushing past Sasuke into the house. Kakashi follows them silently, dropping the bag on the floor. "We grabbed as much non-perishables as we could." Naruto reaches into the bag, pulling out a pack of ramen. Sasuke snorts.

"That's not healthy!" Sakura protests, rolling her eyes. "Tell me you got something healthier." She turns on Kakashi for an answer. He nods shortly before disappearing into the back of the house, presumably the bathroom. Sakura meets Sasuke's eyes before he closes the door and locks it.

"Ramen is the best! It's full of protein!" Naruto chatters, carrying the bags into the kitchen.

"Is Kakashi okay?" Sakura murmurs quietly to Sasuke, brushing her fingers against his hand. He shrugs.

"Hey, Bastard, where do you keep your pans? We're having ramen tonight!" Naruto pokes his head around the corner.

"Under the stove," he calls. He turns toward Sakura "Help me cover the windows."

Sakura can hear Naruto banging around in the kitchen. "Keep it down, will you?"

"Aye, aye, captain!" Naruto retorts in a smartass tone while Sakura sits on the ground next to the tarps and begins to cut them in pieces that will fit over the windows.

Ten minutes later, Naruto appears in the doorway to the living room as Sasuke hammers the tarps into place above the window. "Food's ready!"

"Go check on Kakashi." Sasuke tells Sakura, hammering the last corner into place. Sakura gets to her feet and heads down the hallway to the bathroom and knocks on the door.

"Kakashi? Food's ready." No answer. "Kakashi?" She pauses. "I'm coming in." She twists the doorknob slowly, giving him a chance to object. Her heart leaps to her throat at the sight of Kakashi lying prone on the floor, unconscious. "Sasuke! Naruto!" She yells, stumbling back a couple steps.

Sasuke is the first to come up behind her. He swears, pushing past her and kneeling down next to him. He shoves up Kakashi's sleeves.

A bright red, swollen bite mark mars the pale skin of his elbow.

"Shit." Naruto breathes, at a loss for words for the first time in his life.

"What do we do?" Sakura panics, her hand coming up to grip the doorframe. Sasuke presses a hand to Kakashi's forehead.

"He's burning up." He growls, standing up. He turns the knob on the sink, and with a gurgle the water pours out. Sasuke grabs a paper cup and fills it with water. He splashes the water on Kakashi's face, and with a lurch, the man sits up.

"You were bit!" Naruto cries. Kakashi groans in response, getting to his feet shakily.

"Sakura, breathe." Sasuke bites out, looking straight at her. She dizzily realizes that she has been holding her breath.

"Oh god, what do we do?" Sakura presses a hand to her mouth, feeling wetness at her eyes. "We've never had to deal with this before. There must be something we can do!" She pauses, trying to think. She jerks her head up to look at Sasuke. "Your parents' medical books! There must be something in there!"

Kakashi meets her eyes sadly, a resigned look in his eyes. Sakura shakes her head vigorously. "Don't look at me like that! There's got to be something!" The three men stare at her.

"Sakura…" Sasuke trails off.

"Stop it! All of you! I'm a med student! I can find something!" She hurries out into the living room and begins looking through the books in the bookshelf. She grabs an encyclopedia and immediately flips to the infectious disease section.

An hour passes.

Kakashi has been moved to the bed in the living room, where he passes in and out of delirium with an undiminishing fever.

"Sasuke." Kakashi grinds out, his eyes glazed over. Sakura looks up from her place on the floor. Sasuke bends down next to him, and she strains to hear what they are saying.

A minute later, Sasuke goes to Naruto where he sits in the kitchen, still eating ramen. They speak quietly to each other, and Naruto's eyes steel, dead serious. He sets down his ramen, and the two men approach Kakashi and help him up.

"Where are you going?" Sakura asks.

"Outside. He wants some fresh air," Sasuke replies, casting his eyes to the side.

"Okay…" She says suspiciously. She watches them warily as they take Kakashi out to the back yard. She sets the book down and crosses to the window and moves the tarp aside, watching them set Kakashi down against a tree. Her breath catches at the sight of the gun in the back of Sasuke's waistband.

"No!" She screams and bursts through the door.

"Naruto, stop her!" Sasuke yells. Naruto runs back towards the house and latches onto her, holding her back.

"Sakura, this is what I want." Kakashi says quietly. Sakura lunges with all her strength, but Naruto doesn't budge.

"No! It can't end like this!" She screams, tears tracking down her face. She fights vigorously, raking her nails across Naruto's arms that wrap around her waist.

"Sasuke. Please." Kakashi says. "I want to be with my wife," he murmurs. His dry voice rasps just loud enough for Sakura to hear him across the yard. Sasuke reaches for his gun with trembling hands.

"No!" Sakura cries, tears fully clouding her vision. "We can save you! We'll find something!"

"There is nothing, Sakura." Kakashi tips his head back. His eyes slip closed. Sasuke reaches forward, pressing his fingers to Kakashi's pulse point.

"It's weak." He says. Sakura lunges forward once more.

"Let me save him! I can do this!" She clasps onto Naruto's hands, trying to pry them off of her. Sasuke meets her eyes, his dark eyes deadened. He takes in a shuddering breath and points his gun, the tip trembling with the violent shaking of his hands.

"Sasuke, no! Please! I'm begging you, please!" She shrieks. "Please!" She cries.

"I'm sorry." He squeezes his eyes shut for a second before turning fully to face Kakashi.

"_No_!" Sakura rips away from Naruto a second too late.

BANG.


	6. six

The smell of blood still lingers in her nostrils when he comes to her.

"Go away." Her voice crackles and rasps like a worn out needle on a record player. His footsteps stop their approach.

"Sakura." The deep baritone of his voice is enough to shake her composure. She chokes on a shuddering inhale.

"Why? Why do we keep trying?" She asks in small voice. Things are breaking, shattering, fraying like the last thread in a string that has been lit on fire. Everyone is dying and nothing is there the stop it.

He is silent, but his footsteps restart their steady approach. His hand on her shoulder is the last straw.

She whips around, tears falling freely from her eyes. "Why do we keep trying, huh?" She shouts in his face. "I'll never see my parents, never see Ino! They're gone, just like everyone else!" Her voice rises. "It's only a matter of time before we all turn, just like Kakashi!" Her voice breaks over Kakashi's name, the loss still too raw, still too fresh.

"And you! You just stand there acting like everything will be fine!" She shoves at his shoulder. "You, you _shot _him!" She is screaming in his face now, pushing at him while tears race down her face. "Everything is gone! Life is over! Ino is gone! My best friend is _gone _and I'll _never see her again!"_ She weakly presses her hand against his shoulder, forcing him to take a step back.

"Everyone will die! So why do we keep trying?" She stumbles over her own feet, but he catches her elbow.

"Because we can." He says quietly.

"What if that's not enough? What if this is how the world is now? Day to day, running from walkers, looking for somewhere safe for a day or two, is that all life is now?" She swipes at her face furiously with trembling hands.

It's like…it's like all they can do is breathe. All they can do is put one step in front of another and hope that they don't fall. Because if they fall, _if they fall_, it's to their death. Death encroaches upon life, walking, breathing, consuming, and it's like a losing battle. And loss is just an underwhelming assembly of letters that describes the burning hole eating and tearing at her being, at her every breath. When everyone is gone and hope is just a far-off concept that used to be a real possibility, what is left?

"We can make it." Sasuke murmurs, tracing a hand up her arm.

Everything inside of her breaks into a million pieces, and Sasuke is pulling her into his chest. His arms wrap around her, and his chin rests on top of her head.

"We can make it, Sakura." He repeats solemnly. "Me, you, and Naruto."

* * *

**seven steps to death**

* * *

They retreat into the house just as the sun slips beneath the horizon.

Sakura sits on the pull-out bed huddled among a cocoon of blankets while Sasuke and Naruto reinforce the front door with the wooden boards Sasuke had brought in earlier. While Sakura stood out among the woods outside the house, the boys had buried Kakashi's body in the backyard in a shallow grave. The gunshot will likely attract walkers to the area, so they need to be prepared. The room is illuminated with a soft light by the flickering candles.

"Sakura, you can have the bedroom." Sasuke says from where he stands, holding up a board as Naruto hammers it.

Sakura grunts, curling deeper into the blankets as her eyes droop from exhaustion. Sighing, she unwinds herself from her cocoon, getting to her feet. She pads down the hallway and into the bedroom, collapsing onto the bed in exhaustion.

She wiggles under the covers, clenching her fingers into the sheets. Every time she closes her eyes, all she can see is the bullet shooting through Kakashi's skull, the blood that spatters onto the ground.

Despite this, she falls asleep quickly.

Hours later, Sakura shoots up, covered in cold sweat. The image of her friends turning into walkers is burned into the back of her eyelids, and she hurriedly scrambles out of the bed and creeps down the hallway.

Naruto and Sasuke are sprawled across the pull out couch, fast asleep. Hesitantly, Sakura approaches them, clenching her arms to her chest. Her knees bump against the edge of the bed, and, steeling herself, she crawls up in between the boys. Sasuke's dark eyes flicker open, and he shifts to the side, giving her room. Naruto remains immobile, oblivious.

"You okay?" Sasuke asks and Sakura squirms beneath the blanket.

"Nightmare." She breathes, lying on her side to face him. He lifts a hand and threads his fingers through her hair.

"Relax. As soon as it's light we'll head out." He whispers softly. She nods briefly, fisting her hands in the sheets.

"How are we going to make it?" She breathes.

His fingers massage her scalp. "Same way as we were before."

"I mean in general. Future tense. Long term." She amends, closing her eyes.

"We don't need to think about that right now." He sighs. "Just…go back to sleep, okay?"

Sakura hums, curling deeper into the blankets.

She awakens when she feels Sasuke get up from the bed. Blearily, she sits up, checking her watch. It's an expensive watch that her parents had gotten her for her graduation from undergrad, and, unfortunately, it's scratched up now after months of harsh living.

Light illuminates the room when Sasuke, shifts the coverings on the windows to the side to peer out. Naruto groans in complaint, burrowing deep into the bed.

"We should get going." Sasuke says, letting the cover fall back into place. Sakura crawls out of the bed, finger-combing her hair into place.

"Do you think the shower is working?" She asks.

"I doubt the water heater does." Sasuke replies, crossing to Naruto's side of the bed. "Get up, idiot."

Naruto grunts, but sits up, rubbing his eyes.

Sakura wanders through the small house back to the master bathroom, resolving to suck it up and get in the cold water, if only to rinse off. She turns the tap of the water, and after a second, the water pours out of the faucet.

"At least something is still working…" She mumbles, and switches it up into the shower head. Steeling herself, she peels off her clothes and quickly steps into the water, sucking in a breath through her teeth from the freezing temperature.

Washing herself rapidly with the soap that still remains in the shower and lathering her hair with shampoo that likely belonged to Sasuke's mother, she is in and out of the shower in a matter of minutes.

Toweling off, she listens intensely for any foreign noises beyond the sounds of the boys shuffling around within the house.

She pulls on her clothes, shivering slightly from the cold water. Padding barefoot through the house, she finds Naruto attempting to make breakfast (instant ramen, as usual) and Sasuke poring over a map.

"Really, Naruto?" Sakura says sarcastically, cocking an eyebrow.

"Are you going to complain?" Naruto snaps good-naturedly, grinning over at her. Sakura rolls her eyes and crosses to sit next to Sasuke.

"Where to?" Sakura asks. Sasuke sighs.

"We need to find somewhere that one of us knows…somewhere low population, somewhere we can find a place to bunker down in." He pauses. "Kakashi wanted to take us out into the Mojave desert, but that place is a wasteland and there won't be any supplies or anything."

"We can go for central California?" Sakura suggests.

"Yes, but where in central California? And which route?"

Sakura pauses. "When I was on the archery team in undergrad, we did tournaments in Tulare. It's this tiny-ass town with barely anyone, but it has a Super Target and WalMart. We could head that way." She leans over, her shoulder pressing against Sasuke's arm. "If we take, um, 138 over to 14, then north until 58, that'll take us to 99. We'd have to pass through Bakersfield, but…" She trails off.

"It's worth a shot? I passingly know my way around there, and it's pretty empty. We used to always make fun of the place for being cow town." She continues. "There was this one time where there was a cock fight or something, and a guy got knifed in the leg or something and died. A rooster killed him." She smiles softly.

"Sounds good enough." Sasuke replies, rolling up the map. "Naruto, are you done yet?"

"It's ready if you two are hungry!" Naruto exclaims, already stuffing his face with instant ramen. Sakura meets Sasuke's eyes.

"We can do this right?" She asks, looking for reassurance. He nods solemnly, getting to his feet to head to the kitchen. Sakura sighs, staring down at her knees, unsure of how they will make it through the end of the world.

* * *

**AN: I'm super sorry about the wait! I got really busy with classes and now it's summer and I'm only taking one class and not working until July so hopefully I'll make progress on this! Please review :)**

**FYI: I'm not looking for criticism or con-crit, I'm just writing for fun.  
**


	7. seven

**seven steps to death**

* * *

Sakura sits in the passenger seat of the van, staring blankly out the windshield at the road. Sasuke is driving, one hand on top of the wheel and the other resting on the rest in between their seats. Naruto, meanwhile, is snoring in the back seat.

Loudly.

Sakura drums her fingers on the car door, glancing out the side window. They are on the outskirts of the city of Palmdale, about to come up on the interchange onto 14. Naruto had fallen asleep almost instantly in the backseat once Sasuke had gotten them onto the open highway, and Sakura has been fidgeting uncomfortably since.

Reaching forward, she flips on the radio to the AM station. She is met with static. Sasuke glances over at her. "What are you doing?"

"It's worth a try." Sakura mumbles, rotating the dial through the stations, but she consistently she meets gray static. Dejectedly, she turns it off again.

Before leaving the house, Sakura had packed a backpack full of books for things to do with her time, but now that she was in the car she had no desire to even look at them.

Coming upon a group of cars stranded on the side of the road, Sasuke slows next to them. "Let's see if they have gas." He says, and Sakura nods, turning to hop out of the car.

She circles around to the back and pulls out the siphoning device, walking over to the closest car, a black Infiniti. She struggles with opening the panel and sighs, circling around to the driver's side. Squinting her eyes to see into the darkened windows, she pulls it open and immediately leaps back with a yelp.

A walker strapped down in the passenger seat reaches for her with outstretched hands, its face contorted into a grimace. She wrinkles her nose at the smell, squatting down to look for the latch for the gas tank.

She feels something nudge her on the shoulder, and she glances over. Sasuke holds her white bow out to her. "Take care of it." He says. "I'll check the other cars." She nods, taking her bow and the arrows.

Nocking an arrow, she draws back the string to her jaw, the string pressing against the tip of her nose and her lips. Taking only a second to aim, she lets the string go, and the arrow shoots cleanly through the walker's eye. Stepping forward, Sakura grabs the end of the arrow in front of the fletchings and pulls it out of the walker's head, wiping the arrow off on the car's upholstery. She drops the arrow in the quiver and slings her bow over her head.

Finding the latch, she pulls it and hears the gas tank open. Jogging back around the car with the siphon, and she inserts the clear tube into the tank. She places her mouth over the tube and begins to suck until the gas appears in the tube. Doing as she had before, she crimps the tube and inserts the end of the tube in the gas can. She waits patiently for all of the gas to empty into the can before picking it up and heading over to Sasuke, where he is standing at another car with the gas tank open.

"Here." She holds the siphon out to Sasuke. The device is rudimentary, but with their limited supplies, but they have made due with it.

"What's on the way out here? Do you remember?" Sasuke asks after he has the gas pouring into the can.

"Well I know we're going to pass through Mojave when we're on 14 going to 58, and I think there's like an airport or something there. Oh wait! There's an air force base." She pauses. "Do you think there will be weapons there? Ammo or anything?" Before they left, she'd taken stock of the weapons they had. They have several handguns with a fair amount of ammo, and one AK with a scope on it that could do some damage, but in the grand scope of things, they were terribly underarmed.

"Possibly." He withdraws the tube from the gas tank and checks the can. "That should be enough." He says, and begins trekking back to the car. Sakura follows closely behind, tossing her bow and arrows into the trunk as Sasuke fills the gas tank of their van.

Sasuke starts the car up once they're both in the car, and pulls back onto the highway, accelerating quickly.

"This must be your dream. Driving really fast on empty roads." Sakura muses.

"More like Naruto's." Sasuke replies.

"Naruto never had a car as powerful as yours." Sasuke, of course, having come from a family made of money, had a 5-series white BMW, while Naruto only had a Honda.

"Hn." Sasuke grunts, his eyes never moving from the road. Sakura leans over to check out the speedometer, and grimaces. Sasuke is pushing 90. Not that it really matters, she supposes. There aren't really any other people on the road to hit. Sakura unfolds the map, laying it across her knees.

"We're about to go through Palmdale and Lancaster, both places of relatively high populations." Sakura says, tracing their route with her finger.

"Meaning we should get through as quickly as possible." Sasuke clarifies. Sakura hums, reaching to open up the center console. Sasuke lifts his arm that is resting there, and Sakura pulls out a stack of CDs, flipping through them.

"They're all unmarked." She mutters, shrugging and picking on at random, sliding it into the CD player of the car. When music floods the car, Sakura quickly turns it down a notch. K-pop. Of course.

She can see Sasuke roll his eyes at the bubblegum pop. "Maybe Gangnam Style will be on it." Sakura jokes, smiling.

"It better not." Sasuke replies, suppressing a yawn. The road is woefully bleak, the surroundings completely brown and deserted. "How long of a drive is it Tulare?" Sasuke asks.

"It was four hours from LA." Sakura replies.

"And you're sure it was pretty quiet out there?" He says.

"Once we got out of Bakersfield, yeah."

He groans. "Bakersfield is going to be a nightmare."

"Yeah. I don't remember it being too awful, getting through there on 58 and 99." Sakura says.

They make it through Palmdale and Lancaster without incident, though Sasuke is forced to slow down in order to weave around cars left on the road. "Are we going to stop at the air force base?" Sakura asks.

"Might as well. It'd be worth it if we could get more weapons." Sasuke replies. "Wake the idiot up."

Sakura leans around the seat, prodding Naruto with the folded up map. The blonde groans. "Come on, Naruto, wake up. We've got a change in plans."

"What?" Naruto asks, sluggishly sitting up.

"There's an air force base on the way there. We're going to see if we can find weapons we can take." Sasuke says, swerving around a car stalled out in the far left lane.

"Watch it!" Naruto protests, nearly falling over.

"Put your seatbelt on!" Sakura advises, smiling.

"How long until we're there, then?" Naruto asks. Sasuke glances at Sakura, and she sighs.

"45 minutes? I don't know, I can't really tell based off a map." Sakura leans the seat back, breathing in deeply.

Next thing she knew, Sasuke has his hand on her shoulder. "Where do I go?" He asks. Sakura sits up with a jolt.

"Sorry, sorry, I must have fallen asleep." She unfolds the map, staring at it. "Take 58 east, and then the Edmonds Air Force Base exit." She adjusts the seat to sitting straight up so she doesn't fall asleep again. "We're close, I think." Sakura says.

Twenty minutes later, Sasuke takes them down a surface street, heading into a tiny town with the giant air force base to their left.

"This place is huge. Where do we start?" Naruto says in wonder, staring out the window.

"We need to find some kind of command base." Sasuke says.

"Kakashi would've known where to go. He was in the military…" Sakura mumbles, staring down at her knees.

"We can't think about that right now." Sasuke cuts her off, his hand tightening on the steering wheel.

He pulls in front of a large building, marked simply as "Edwards Air Force Base". "I guess we can start here." He says, shifting the car into park and pulling the keys from the ignition. He shoves them in his pocket, getting out of the car.

The three of them circle around to the trunk, opening it up. Each of them grab backpacks, and Sakura takes her bow and arrows. Naruto takes his axe and a knife, along with the AK and the ammo, making sure it was fully loaded. Sasuke grabs his Berretta and a large machete-like knife. Pausing for a second, he reaches for another pistol, a revolver, and holds it out to Sakura.

"Take it." He says. Hesitantly, Sakura takes it from his hand, along with the holster and pouch of ammo. "You know how to shoot it?"

"Of course." Sakura replies, checking the safety and fully loading it. He hands her a knife along with the gun.

"Alright. Everyone stay together. No splitting up now." Sasuke says, leading them into the dark building.

* * *

**AN: Sorry it's so short, but I needed to get all this intermediate done in this chapter before I enter the new arc :) Obvs making some stuff up for the air force base because I've never been there, but the rest of the navigating stuff is all places I've been to. Things will for sure pick up next chapter! If you're interested, I've got a couple new fics up, Radioactive, a nuclear war fic, and black coffee with love, a modern coffee shop au that's ACTUALLY HUMOR.**

**As always, please please please leave reviews!**


	8. eight

seven steps to death

* * *

They approach the building together as a group. Sakura glances at her watch, noting that it's still early, only noon.

"Naruto, help me." Sasuke says, approaching the sliding glass doors. Naruto hurries up, grabbing one of the doors with Sasuke grabbing the other. They each pull and the doors open. Sakura slides through the opening, surveying the area. The room is well lit by the sun coming in through the windows, but she has a feeling that it will be less bright farther in.

"Let's go." Sasuke says, holding his gun at a ready. Sakura vaults over the front desk, beginning to rifle through the drawers.

"Someone's been here already. It's picked clean." She says, standing up straight. "Maybe we should go."

"No, let's keep going." Naruto replies, pushing open a door. Sakura clambers back over the desk, following the two boys into the room. It's obvious that someone has been here; drawers are opened and papers are strewn around the office.

"Do you think people have been here since the breakout or is this from the initial rush?" Sakura asks, peeking into a drawer.

"Who know." Naruto replies, opening up what looks like a coat closet. "Holy shit!" He yells, jumping back. Sakura whirls around to look.

Sasuke approaches the dead body that had fallen out of the closet. "It's got a hole in its head. Someone's been here."

"So we should get out of here?" Sakura asks softly.

"No, we need those guns." Sasuke insists. Sakura heaves a sigh and steps over the body.

They make their way through the deserted building, dead bodies littering the hallways, reaffirming the conclusion that they aren't the first people to loot the place.

They come upon a locked door, and they exchange looks.

"Sakura, do you have a bobby pin or anything?" Naruto asks, looking at her imploringly. Sakura cocks an eyebrow but pulls a couple bobby pins holding her bangs out of her face from her hair.

"What do you plan to do with those?" Sakura asks.

"Don't look." Naruto says. Sakura rolls her eyes, and Sasuke steps back, crossing his arms.

The lock clicks.

"What the fuck Naruto? How…?" Sakura exclaims, holding her hand out for her bobby pins.

"I grew up in foster homes. You learn shit." He offers, getting to his feet. Sakura replaces the bobby pins in her hair and opens the door…

…only to be pushed straight onto her back.

"Fuck fuck fuck!" She screams, shoving her arms out in front of her as a walker crawls on top of her.

"The room is full of them!" Naruto exclaims, and she can hear the deafening sound of guns firing.

However, she is fully occupied with the walker currently on top her valiantly attempting to eat her face. She wiggles, attempting to get a free hand to grab her knife or gun or anything.

Finally managing to wrench the knife free, she shoves it straight into the walker's eye socket, spraying blood onto her face. She shimmies out from underneath her, pulling the gun out of the back of her pants. The two boys are using the door as a bottleneck point, taking them out one by one.

"How much do you wanna bet there's something in there that we need?" Sakura asks, shooting a walker in the face with the revolver.

"How much do you wanna bet the door was locked for a reason?" Naruto countered, cleaving a walker's skull with the axe.

Finally, they have dispatched the group of walkers, and the two boys clear a path into the room. Sakura climbs through the mound of bodies, observing the carnage impassively.

It's not like she hasn't seen it before, unfortunately.

"Keep watch, Naruto." Sasuke orders while Sakura begins to rifle through the desk.

"Bingo, a map." She pulls out the wad of paper before happening upon the grand treasure. She holds it up for Sasuke to see. "Keys. Never know what these go to."

Sasuke, meanwhile, pores over the map. "There are lots of aircraft hangars, but this is where we need to go." He points to a building on the map. Sakura looks out the window in an attempt to match it to the building on the map.

"The armory." She says. Sasuke nods in affirmation. "Do you think these keys will get us in?" She asks, holding up the keyring.

"It's worth a try." He replies. Together, they clamber out of the room. "Come on, idiot." Sasuke claps Naruto on the shoulder as he passes the other man.

Sakura jogs ahead, heading back towards the lobby where she remembers another hallway with glass doors heading out back behind the building.

As she turns the corner, she suddenly hears the groans of a walker. She glances back at the boys, who have heard the same sounds. She unslings her bow and fully turns the corner, casually taking a couple steps towards the walker.

The man smells her presence and turns toward her, growling loudly.

"Shut up." Sakura says clearly, pulling the string back and lining up the sight. The arrow hits the walker right in the head, dropping it like a fly.

"You're such a badass, Sakura!" Naruto exclaims. Sakura grins back at him as she collects the arrow.

They make their way down the central hallway, out of the building and into what looks like the area where aircrafts were stored. Sasuke examines the map and points to a small building a little ways away.

"That looks like the place." He says. All of a sudden, shots began to fire.

"Run!" Naruto yells, and they take off running across the open area, remaining low to the ground to make themselves smaller targets. Sakura fumbles in her pockets for the ring of keys as she makes the mad dash, weaving around a small group of walkers.

She reaches the building quickly, hurrying around to a door and trying it. "Locked." She mutters, quickly beginning to try different keys in the knob.

"Come on, Sakura." Sasuke says where he is taking cover behind the building. A shot ricochets a foot from Sakura's shoulder, and she yelps.

One of the keys turns.

"Got it!" She exclaims, pushing open the door. The boys follow her in rapidly, and she slams the door behind her, locking it.

"Holy shit." Naruto says in wonder. Sakura turns around and feels her eyes widen.

The place is absolutely loaded in weapons. Sniper rifles, AKs, handguns, carbines, shotguns, everything they could possibly need. Sasuke rifles through a drawer of ammo, pulling out different boxes that must match what they already have.

"Sakura, know how to shoot this?" Naruto asks, tossing a sniper at her.

"I can try?" She says, examining it. Using the handle of her knife, she breaks the glass on a window and pokes the barrel of the rifle out through the opening. Looking through the scope, as a test shot, she fires at a walker.

"Shit." She mutters, stumbling back from the kick.

"Good shot!" Naruto exclaims, shoving a shotgun in his bag.

"Do you see the assholes shooting at us?" Sasuke asks, filling his bag with a 9mm and ammo for it.

"What the hell is this? Is this a hand cannon?" Naruto mutters, holding up a gun. Sasuke takes a quick look.

"A shorty. It's like a shotgun." He replies. "Take it."

Sakura peers out the window, looking for their assailants. "Guys, I don't see them, and we're attracting walkers."

"Let's get out of here." Sasuke says, looking over the armory once more. Sakura opens the door to leave and freezes.

"Drop the gun." A man says, pointing a pistol in her face. She immediately drops the sniper, raising her hands.

_Fuck._

"Sakura?" Naruto questions.

"Stay in there." Sakura says, her hands trembling. "We're not looking for trouble." She says to the man, staring pointedly at the barrel of the gun.

The man is tall, as tall as Sasuke, with long brown hair and light gray eyes. She can hear the crunch of glass inside of the building as the boys move around inside.

"Hand over the weapons." The man orders, nodding inside the armory.

"There are plenty for both of us, we don't need to do this." Sakura tries to reason, licking her suddenly dry lips.

"Put down your weapon." Sasuke's voice comes from around the other side of the building, having obviously climbed out the broken window. The man merely glances at Sasuke, nodding once.

A second man whips around the corner, leaping up and kneeing Sasuke in the back, causing him to stumble. Sakura watches with wide eyes as the second man quickly has Sasuke on the ground.

"Neji?" Naruto's voice comes from behind her. Sakura glances over her shoulder to see Naruto staring at the man currently pointing the gun at her face. His eyes light up in recognition.

"They're with you, Naruto?" Neji asks, nodding to Sasuke. Naruto nods. Neji waves to the man that has Sasuke locked down on the ground, and he gets up.

"Um, can you point that somewhere else if we're going to not kill each other?" Sakura ventures, eyes fixed on the gun to her face. Neji's arm drops.

"Neji, I can't believe you're here! You're alive!" Naruto exclaims, rushing forward to hug Neji. The other man uncomfortably pats Naruto on the back. Naruto steps back. "Hinata…Hinata was with you when it started, right? Where is she? Is she okay?"

"Naruto, I don't think now's the time…" Sakura murmurs, looking around. Walkers are beginning to congregate around them, drawn by the gunshots.

"Come with us." Neji says, turning and running towards one of the hangars. Sakura glances at Sasuke, who shrugs, picking his gun up from the ground. The man that took Sasuke down slices a walker's head in half with a sword he pulls from a sheath at his belt, and Naruto embeds his axe in another's skull.

Sakura hurries after Neji, pulling her revolver out of her waistband and pointing it at an approaching walker. She squeezes the trigger, and the gun fires, dropping the walker. Her arm sways back from the kick, but she stands her ground. She can hear Sasuke's gun firing behind her.

They reach a hangar, and Neji and the other man both grasp the handle to lift the door. Neji bangs on it, and the door begins to lift. Meanwhile, Naruto fires a shot off with the shorty.

"Shit, this hand cannon's got some power to it!" He exclaims excitedly. Once the hangar door is open, they hurry inside and slam it closed. The place is pitch black, and Sakura clicks on the flashlight hooked onto her backpack. The others do the same, while Neji leads the way through the hangar.

"Lee, go ahead and let them know we're back with company." Neji calls to the other man, Lee.

"Neji, how long have you guys been here?" Naruto asks, swiveling his body around to illuminate the room with the flashlight. There are two different aircrafts stored in the hangar.

"A month, maybe." He replies. Sakura bumps into Naruto.

"Who is this guy?" She asks softly. She feels Sasuke's eyes on them as he listens in.

"Neji Hyuuga. He's Hinata's cousin." Naruto replies brightly.

Neji leads them to a set of stares, leading up to a higher level. They come up to a heavy door with light coming out from underneath. Neji opens it and leads them in.

There is a window on the far end of the room, looking out at the runway they had run across to get to the armory. _That explains how they'd been shooting at us…_

"Hinata!?" Naruto exclaims, and Sakura feels a smile spread across her face. There she is, long, dark hair, light grey eyes, tiny. She is staring wide eyed at Naruto, before she meets him in the middle of the room in a tight embrace.

A woman is standing at the window with a hunting rifle leaning against the sill. "Sorry about shooting at you guys, didn't know you knew Hinata." She crosses to Sakura holding out her hand. "Tenten." Sakura shakes her hand, and they make their introductions.

"So what are you guys doing out here?" Neji asks, leaning against the windowsill and crossing his arms.

"Passing through. Thought to look for weapons on the way out of here." Sasuke replies, mimicking Neji's pose against the wall. Sakura has to stifle a laugh at the testosterone fest. Sasuke's eyes flick menacingly towards her.

"Where were you headed?" Tenten asks, fingering the rifle.

"Central California. Out to cow town." Naruto says, settling down against a wall with Hinata. Sasuke shoots him a sharp glare, obviously not wanting to share all of their plans with new people.

"What's out there for you?" Lee questions.

"Nothing. That's the point. There's nothing out there." Sakura offers, throwing in her support with Naruto. Knowing that Hinata is with them, they have no choice but to join in with the four of them.

An hour and a half later, Hinata, Lee, Tenten, and Neji are packed up and piling into their pickup truck while Sasuke and Naruto load the guns into the back of the van. Hinata will be riding in the back of their car with Naruto, while Sakura sits shotgun with Sasuke.

"Honk your horn if you need to stop for whatever reason." Naruto tells Neji, who will be driving the other car.

Sakura nudges Sasuke. "You okay with this?" She asks. Sasuke merely grunts in response. "It's Hinata…Naruto can't leave her behind." Sakura says, heading to climb into the car.

Time to head out, then.

* * *

**AN: Here's chapter eight! :) As always, please leave reviews!  
**


	9. nine

seven steps to death

* * *

It's a quiet ride as they traverse through the mountain passes on highway 58. The temperature drops the higher the get, and in a month, maybe two, the place will be covered in snow, making it completely impassable.

It's only mid-October, but it's only a matter of time before temperatures drop to freezing, especially in the area they'll be in. Whereas Los Angeles remained a steady temperature year-round, up in central California around Bakersfield, temperatures could plummet below freezing.

With a soft smile, she remembers her undergrad archery tournaments, bundled up in thermal Under Armor and a big jacket in the middle of January.

Sasuke has one hand on the top of the steering wheel with his other elbow propped up on the car door with his head leaning on his hand. Hinata and Naruto have cozied up in the backseat, happy at being reunited after nearly two months apart. She catches Sasuke yawning out of the corner of her eye, and she touches his shoulder.

"Want me to drive for a while?" She offers.

"I'm fine." He says flatly, shifting in his seat to sit upright.

Sakura huffs, staring out the window. She moves to go through the CDs she had taken from Sasuke's house, along with other ones she had amassed during the times they had gone into town to raid. Picking one, she shoves it into the CD slot in the car, and smiles as music floods the car.

"It's so pretty out here." She says, staring out the window.

"It's empty." Sasuke replies.

"Yes, well, it's been untouched from this apocalypse. Therefore, I think it's pretty." She says firmly.

As they pull into the beginnings of the city of Bakersfield, Sasuke slows at the sight of a blockade of cars, leading to an exit off of 99. He pulls to a stop, staring fixedly at the exit.

"Everyone out." He says, and Sakura stares at him.

"What are you talking about?" She questions.

"It's an ambush. We follow the path to go around the blockade to get back on the highway, and they attack." He replies, turning off the car and getting out.

"It makes sense." Naruto says, climbing out. Sakura huffs a sigh and follows suit. Sasuke opens up the trunk of the van as he explains the situation to Lee, Tenten, and Neji. Sasuke and Neji converse for a minute, before they begin pulling out guns of each car.

Sasuke holds out a carbine to Sakura, and she takes it firmly along with her bow. Naruto grabs his shorty along with a revolver, while Tenten takes a sniper rifle.

"Tenten, Sakura, Hinata, and Naruto will head into the neighboring buildings, taking out anyone they can find and get a vantage point to take out the guys at the ambush point. Sasuke, Lee, and I will head down the street and take them out once you guys give us the signal." Neji says, handing Sakura one of the walkie-talkies that they own.

Sakura shoves the walkie talkie in the side pocket of her quiver and pulls her bow over her head, holding the carbine in her hand. She has her revolver shoved into the back of her jeans.

The three girls and Naruto head out, climbing up the embankment on the side of the highway. Naruto leads the way, cutting through the residential area by the highway to follow the line of the exit that leads to the ambush. The roads are largely blocked off, seeming to lead to the parking lot of a hotel.

"Let's go this way." Naruto motions for them to go around, staying off of the road. "I bet they're all gathered in the parking of lot of that building. If we can get up to one of the higher floors, we can pick them off." Naruto says quietly, leading them around the back.

The building seems silent, but Sakura can see the shape of a man standing in front of one of the windows. She holds out the carbine for Naruto hold and pulls her bow out in front of her, nocking an arrow. She leads the way into the building, nudging open an already slightly ajar door. Quickly ducking into a room, she peers around the corner, keeping an eye out for anyone.

Sakura moves down the hallway, peaking around the bend in the hallway, finding a single man facing the stairwell. She steps out from behind the corner silently, drawing her bow. She releases quickly, and the man crumples to the floor. Naruto and Tenten rush ahead, climbing the stairs quickly while Sakura collects her arrow. Hinata timidly follows Sakura up the stairs.

They traverse up two flights of stairs, up to the third floor, and they exit the stairwell into the hallway. Three men stand in a small group in the middle of the hall, talking amongst themselves.

"We should take them out silently." Naruto whispers, grabbing for a knife. Sakura nocks an arrow in preparation. "Sakura, you can shoot one, and Tenten and I can rush the last two." Tenten grips her machete tightly, smirking. "Hinata, watch our backs."

Naruto and Tenten begin to creep down the hallway silently, staying low to the ground. Sakura draws her bow, holding it for a second to mentally gauge the distance in order to aim. She releases the arrow, and it whistles through the air and lodges in the largest man's throat.

"What the fuck—" One yells, beginning to turn around, but Tenten is upon him, slicing her machete across his throat. Naruto latches onto the third, strangling him through brute force, releasing him when he goes slack.

Sakura approaches, pulling her arrow from the dying man's neck. She then slams it directly into his eye socket in order to prevent him from coming back in the event that a walker comes upon him. Naruto and Tenten each do the same, and Sakura jogs down the hall, looking out the window.

"This is a good vantage point." She points out, looking straight down on the parking lot. Naruto kicks open a door into an adjacent room.

"There's a window here too." He calls. Tenten opens the window in the hallway, kicking out the screen and mounting the sniper rifle on the windowsill.

"Yeah, I can take out any of those fuckers from here." She says, looking through the scope.

"Sakura, you take this window with your carbine. Hinata and I will watch the stairs to make sure no one comes up." Naruto tells her, handing her the carbine. Sakura pushes open the window, cutting the screen with her knife.

Taking a calming breath, she pulls the walkie talkie out of her back pocket. "Alright guys, we have a vantage point. Come on in." She says into it. Shoving the radio back into her back pocket, she peers through the sight on the carbine.

Three approaching figures signal their men's arrivals, and in response, she can see the place come to life, several men appearing into view. Most are hidden from the view of Neji, Lee, and Sasuke, but Sakura and Tenten have clear shots at them.

Sakura is unable to hear what they are saying to the boys, but when she sees them starting draw their guns, she begins to aim. She has barely gotten her eye lined up with the sight when Tenten has already fired a shot, nailing a man directly in the back of the head.

The three boys leap into motion, ducking for cover and pulling their own guns. Sakura moves the sight to hover over one man and fires, bracing her body against the gun to minimize the recoil. Tenten seems to be a natural, picking the men off one by one with the sniper rifle.

"Nice shots!" Sakura calls.

"It's like an upgrade of my old rifle!" Tenten yells back, firing off another shot.

"We got company!" Naruto yells from down the hall. She can hear his shorty shotgun firing rapidly along with Hinata's handgun.

Sakura sees Sasuke savagely slam a man's head directly into a corner, and she quickly picks off a man approaching behind him. Rapidly approaching footsteps cause her to look over a shoulder, and she barely manages to dive out of the way when a man swings a metal pipe at her.

Steeling herself, she scrambles to her feet, but the man is quickly upon her once more, reaching to take her gun from her. Growling fiercely, she slams the butt of the gun into his face before pointing the gun at him and firing three bullets, dropping him.

Tenten has abandoned the sniper rifle to fight off her opponents, and Sakura runs to assist her, using the rapid-firing automatic to gun down the enemies. "Go back to the sniper!" Sakura yells when the last one drops.

Tenten is quick to obey, and she returns to systematically picking off the attackers attempting to out-gun Sasuke, Neji, and Lee.

The fight is over in minutes, with Neji taking the last attacker down with a well-placed headshot.

"Alright. Let's get out of here." Sasuke's voice crackles through the radio.

Sakura gives Naruto and Hinata thumbs up from down the hallway and jogs towards them.

"Stay alert, there might be more in the building." Naruto warns her and Tenten. Naruto leads them down the stairs, and once he reaches the bottom floor landing, he glances back at them.

…and is promptly hit in the head by a piece of wood.

Hinata is the first to react, immediately shooting the assailant in the head. Naruto stumbles to his feet, a hand pressed to the side of his head, where a shallow cut drips blood from his temple. He heavily leans against the wall, swearing loudly. Sakura jogs forward, surveying the area with her gun pointed.

"I think that was the last one." She declares, relaxing.

"Ow fuck." Naruto swears, shakily standing up straight. "I'm okay, I think." He declares, taking a few wobbly steps forward.

"You might have a concussion." Sakura says, stepping forward to grab his arm to steady him.

"I'm fine." He says, sending her a bright smile, though she can see the lie in his eyes. They exit the building into the late afternoon sunlight. Lee is sitting alone on a car, his AK lying across his lap.

"Neji and Sasuke went back to get the cars." He says. Sakura helps Naruto over to an abandoned car, and he sits down on it, groaning.

"That asshole hit hard." He mutters, rubbing his eyes.

Minutes later, Sasuke and Neji pull up to them, unlocking the car doors. Sakura loads the guns back into the car while Hinata helps Naruto into the car.

"Hey."

Sakura jumps at the sound of Sasuke's voice as she hefts the big sniper up and over their bags. He is leaning on the car, his arms crossed over his chest.

"Hey." She replies, standing on tiptoes to lay the rifle across their bags. Sasuke plucks it from her hands and shoves it in easily.

"What happened to Naruto?" He asks, shifting to close the trunk.

"One of those guys hit him in the head with a plank of wood. He should be fine in a day or two." She replies, looking up at him. He reaches forward, brushing a thumb across her forehead. Her breath catches. His hand traces back through her hair before dropping back to his side.

"You had…blood on your face." He says before turning to get back in the car. Sakura remains still for a beat, staring at where he had been, before she jogs to the passenger side and climbs in. As soon as she has the door closed, Sasuke drives off, leaving the parking lot for the streets.

"We need to get back to the highway, right?" Sakura asks. Sasuke grunts an affirmative, dodging stalled cars on the road.

Sasuke is quick to navigate them back onto the highway. Within fifteen minutes, they have left the city and are out into the country. The street is lined with farms and orchards, and the sun has started to set.

"We could stop there?" Hinata says from the backseat, leaning forward to point at an old motel on the side of the road. Sakura glances up at Sasuke, observing him.

"We could." Sasuke agrees, slowing the car and taking the next exit to reach the motel. A couple straggling walkers inhabit the place, but beyond that it's empty. "Naruto, wait in here while we take out the walkers." Sasuke orders, twisting around to look at Naruto, who is stretched out across the back seat with his arm over his eyes. Naruto groans miserably in response.

Sakura climbs out of the van and jogs around the back, opening up the trunk and pulling out her bow and arrows. She is quick to shoot a walker in the eye while Lee approaches one with his sword drawn.

Sasuke picks up a broken pipe from the ground and swings it savagely at a walker, effectively bashing its head in. Neji throws a knife at the last walker, and it firmly embeds in the walker's skull.

Sakura retrieves her arrow quickly before approaching the Motel 6. Sasuke is already trying a door, but he steps back. "Locked?" Sakura asks.

"Yeah." He replies. He sighs, taking a step back. He aggressively kicks the door, forcing it open.

"Well that worked." Sakura grins, patting Sasuke on the shoulder on her way into the room. Meanwhile, Neji and Lee scope out the rest of the motel, forcing open doors that are locked. The room has two full-sized beds with a small bathroom. The place looks relatively untouched, despite its location by the highway.

Sakura heads out of the room to grab the things that she will need for the night from the car. Naruto makes his way unsteadily to one of the rooms with Hinata trailing him.

"They're so cute." Sakura says to Sasuke as he pulls her bag from the trunk. "Thanks." She smiles, taking the bag. Neji, Lee, and Tenten have already claimed a room as a trio, and Naruto and Hinata will be staying in one room…

"Um, Sasuke?" She says, shouldering her bag.

"Hm?" He hums, pulling his and Naruto's bag from the car.

"Do you…do you mind if I stay with you? I mean, like, not in the same bed but in the same room? I don't really want to—"

"It's fine." Sasuke cuts her off, meeting her eyes.

"Right. Okay." Sakura mutters, awkwardly turning to go to an empty room.

"Sakura."

She whips around at the sound of Sasuke's voice. "Hm?"

"Good job today." He says, looking her in the eye for a moment before returning to rifling through the contents of the van.

Blushing, she turns around to go back to a room to settle down for the night.

* * *

**AN: Alright, new chapter! I didn't get very many reviews for last chapter :( Where did you guys go?**


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